I plan to do fondue on Valentines Day for our family. I am going to google how to do it and what to buy but I was wondering if you have any tips? I plan to do chicken and beef for our meats and a cheese one too for veggies.

I love fondue but we haven't done it because the kids are so young and the oil does tend to spit out.. oh, and for the fact that 2 out of my 3 do not like meat. Just be careful of the hot oil/cheese. I've never done cheese or anything like that. Enjoy! I miss it.

8th grade math teacher who loves to run and read, but not at the same time.

Posted 11 February 2012 - 10:51 AM

My one experience with cooking meat and beef was not a good one, but I'm impatient. If you are doing this with kids, you have to wait until the meat is cooked and make sure it is cooked well, and it just wasn't a good experience, plus my husband would never want to cook his own meat. I, personally, stick with cheese and chocolate because it's fun and there is no waiting.

2

Rachel

Luke 12/18/97

Sarah & Allison 12/31/05

"...it's not just learning that's important. It's learning what to do with what you learn and learning why you learn things that matters." — Norton Juster

We did a cheese one and a chocolate one for New Years. My kids LOVED it! We did the Melting Pot's spinach artichoke recipe and then we did chocolate with crunchy PB. I just put out diced chicken and shrimp and my kids used the cheese on those as well.

When I do meat I do a flavorful broth instead of oil because the oil is messy. I have done a thai style coconut broth with chicken or shrimp and a red wine broth with beef. I would also buy skewers and pre-load the meat on them and you can just pop in a few at a time and give them plenty of time to cook. Then you can also do little vegetable skewers with asparagus, zucchini, mushrooms or something that only takes a few minutes to steam.

For dessert I do chocolate fondue with fruit and also fun things like rice crispy squares or sponge toffee or even marshmallows.

I'm not a fan of cooking meat for fondue - it never seems to turn out quite right and since you actually have to COOK the meat in the oil/broth it's not as much fun as cheese or chocolate where you just dip the stuff in and take it right out. If you have a Trader Joe's nearby, they have fantastic fondue cheese. All you have to do is open the package, pour it into your fondue pot, heat and enjoy.

If you're doing a cheese fondue, don't forget lots of crusty bread to dunk. It soaks up the cheese much nicer than veggies. Oh - and parboil your veggies first since they won't cook in the cheese. We usually do carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, bread and little potatoes.